Issue 8, 2018

Where's water? The many binding sites of hydantoin

Abstract

Prebiotic hydantoin and its complexes with one and two water molecules are investigated using high-resolution broadband rotational spectroscopy in the 2–8 GHz frequency range. The hyperfine structure due to the nuclear quadrupole coupling of the two 14N atoms is analysed for the monomer and the complexes. This characteristic hyperfine structure will support a definitive assignment from low frequency radioastronomy data. Experiments with H218O provide accurate experimental information on the preferred binding sites of water, which are compared with quantum-chemically calculated coordinates. In the 2-water complexes, the water molecules bind to hydantoin as a dimer instead of individually, indicating the strong water–water interactions. This information provides first insight on how hydantoin interacts with water on the molecular level.

Graphical abstract: Where's water? The many binding sites of hydantoin

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
22 sep 2017
Accepted
22 nov 2017
First published
28 nov 2017
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2018,20, 5545-5552

Where's water? The many binding sites of hydantoin

S. Gruet, C. Pérez, A. L. Steber and M. Schnell, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2018, 20, 5545 DOI: 10.1039/C7CP06518C

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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